5 ms·

Apologies in advance for being harsh, but are you a member in order of your state association of engineers, did you pass the FE exam?, was your school accredite

Apologies in advance for being harsh, but are you a member in order of your state association of engineers, did you pass the FE exam?, was your school accredited to grant engineering diplomas? If the answer is not, please do not call yourself engineer

ardit33 7y ago
That’s not how software engineering works.... I am glad we don’t have to have “certifications” by some bureaucratic local agency to work.
- introvert0 7y ago
  You do realize you make a disservice to those who studied and worked hard to obtain a proper engineering degree, right?
  - pwinnski 7y ago
    Welcome to Hacker News. I think you might be lost. Friendly advice: Try spending some time reading posts and comments for a while to become familiar with the site before jumping in. Again, welcome.
  - username90 7y ago
    Firstly software engineer is not a protected title in most of the world. Secondly the major way to properly learn proper software engineering is to join a top company and learn on the job. I don't see software engineering degrees containing anything useful at all compared to computer science degrees, they just contain some ancient practices which most of the industry moved past ages ago. So I don't really see how someone who studied software engineering at school is more of a software engineer than a person who designs and builds distributed systems at Google.
  - erik_seaberg 7y ago
    The "Fundamentals of Engineering - Electrical and Computer" exam requires topics from differential equations to impedance in AC circuits to op-amps to frequency modulation. I would never gong a candidate for not knowing any of those things, because we write computer software; we don't make our own servers out of magnetite and sand.
- commandlinefan 7y ago
  I kind of wish we did... but it's silly to scold somebody for not having passed a test that doesn't exist.
  - Ididntdothis 7y ago
    I wouldn’t mind either...
  - Izkata 7y ago
    They did say "engineer", not "software engineer" - that one's not just an accreditation, it's legally protected (in the US at least).
alibaba_x 7y ago
Found the Canadian
Ididntdothis 7y ago
If you follow that logic then a lot of people on this site are just pretenders. I don’t think it’s helpful to discuss the meaning of “engineer” in this context.
- introvert0 7y ago
  I am not sure about that, I want my doctor to be a licensed m.d. in all contexts. Same with the firefighters, I don't want a firefighter to be considered as such only on some "contexts".
  - Ididntdothis 7y ago
    In the US there are no software engineer certifications. So everybody with that title is a fake engineer and companies should not hand out that title.
wyclif 7y ago
That might be an acceptable view in Canada or elsewhere, but it is not so in the United States.
efficax 7y ago
lol
dang 7y ago
"Eschew flamebait. Don't introduce flamewar topics unless you have something genuinely new to say. Avoid unrelated controversies and generic tangents." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html Edit: please don't create accounts to break the site guidelines with.

ardit33 7y ago

That’s not how software engineering works.... I am glad we don’t have to have “certifications” by some bureaucratic local agency to work.

introvert0 7y ago
You do realize you make a disservice to those who studied and worked hard to obtain a proper engineering degree, right?
- pwinnski 7y ago
  Welcome to Hacker News. I think you might be lost. Friendly advice: Try spending some time reading posts and comments for a while to become familiar with the site before jumping in. Again, welcome.
- username90 7y ago
  Firstly software engineer is not a protected title in most of the world. Secondly the major way to properly learn proper software engineering is to join a top company and learn on the job. I don't see software engineering degrees containing anything useful at all compared to computer science degrees, they just contain some ancient practices which most of the industry moved past ages ago. So I don't really see how someone who studied software engineering at school is more of a software engineer than a person who designs and builds distributed systems at Google.
- erik_seaberg 7y ago
  The "Fundamentals of Engineering - Electrical and Computer" exam requires topics from differential equations to impedance in AC circuits to op-amps to frequency modulation. I would never gong a candidate for not knowing any of those things, because we write computer software; we don't make our own servers out of magnetite and sand.
commandlinefan 7y ago
I kind of wish we did... but it's silly to scold somebody for not having passed a test that doesn't exist.
- Ididntdothis 7y ago
  I wouldn’t mind either...
- Izkata 7y ago
  They did say "engineer", not "software engineer" - that one's not just an accreditation, it's legally protected (in the US at least).

alibaba_x 7y ago

Found the Canadian

Ididntdothis 7y ago

If you follow that logic then a lot of people on this site are just pretenders. I don’t think it’s helpful to discuss the meaning of “engineer” in this context.

introvert0 7y ago
I am not sure about that, I want my doctor to be a licensed m.d. in all contexts. Same with the firefighters, I don't want a firefighter to be considered as such only on some "contexts".
- Ididntdothis 7y ago
  In the US there are no software engineer certifications. So everybody with that title is a fake engineer and companies should not hand out that title.

wyclif 7y ago

That might be an acceptable view in Canada or elsewhere, but it is not so in the United States.

efficax 7y ago

lol

dang 7y ago

"Eschew flamebait. Don't introduce flamewar topics unless you have something genuinely new to say. Avoid unrelated controversies and generic tangents." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html Edit: please don't create accounts to break the site guidelines with.